Jan van Tartwijk is a full professor of educational sciences.  In his research and teaching  he focusses on teachers' interpersonal behaviour in the classroom and how that behaviour is related to their relationships with their students. He is also interested in the development of expertise of teachers and other professionals. He investigates how training programs, such as teacher education, can contribute to this development. Recently, he started research into discontinuities between children's social and cultural environment within and outside the school and the effects of these discontinuities on educational equity.

In addition to his teaching and research, he fulfils a number of internal and external roles related to his involvement in primary, secondary and higher education. For example, he is currently involved in the Academic Teacher Training Programme for Primary Education (ALPO), which is provided by the university in collaboration with Utrecht University of Applied Sciences, and he is chair of the University's Higher Education Research (HER) research focus area. Previously, Jan was vice-dean for master's programmes at the faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, director of the interfaculty Graduate School of Teaching (GST), which provides the university's teacher education programmes for secondary education, and scientific director of the faculty's Education Advice & Training group.